- Cassandra, the soothsayer of Troy warned the Trojans for the wooden horse that the Greeks had build. She prophesied that the wooden horse would lead to the downfall of the city Troy. She was not believed, but her words became true and she became frustrated.

- Laocoon, a Trojan priest, also warned the Trojans by saying: “Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes”(I fear Greeks and the more so if they bear gifts).

- Allyson Pollock, a hero in the struggle for public health prophesied that market oriented medicine would be expensive and damaging for patient oriented health service.

- Ben Goldacre (BMJ, 2009; published 29 November 2009) said that drug companies have a conflict of interest when they conduct trials and that this conflict results in bad evidence, distorting medical decision making and harming patients. In accordance with Ben Goldacre’s ideas and after transposition of Laocoon’s phrase to our actual discussion we get something like: “I fear food and drug companies and the more so if they sponsor clinical trials”

I was stimulated to write this response when I was informed by the daily journal NRC Handelsblad of 12 mars that on 16 mars 2012, Philip Scheltens would present a paper entitled: ‘Dementia in 2020: solution nearby?’ in which he would discuss that clinical studies on food additives for Alzheimer’s disease are going on and that they are co-sponsored by the food industry. Scheltens is founder and director of the Free University Alzheimer Center in Amsterdam.

In accordance with Ben Goldacre and Allyson Pollock I can prophesy that such sponsoring by the food industry must lead to a conflict of interest, that the industry sponsored clinical studies will result in biased evidence with the risk that it might be harmful for patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Therefore my variant of Laocoon’s Trojan horse phrase is now: “Fear food industry and the more so if they sponsor clinical studies on Alzheimer’s disease.”

Competing interests: None declared